Project 1 background research

Our project topic focused on how graffiti is effected through time and space. I looked up the brief history of graffiti, here is how graffiti started and evolved, explain some terminology of the graffiti culture in general.



History of Graffiti

Graffiti has been around for millions of years, since people discovered that they could leave their marks. Ancient Romans were particularly famous for graffiti, they wrote on the walls and buildings they conquered and cave men drew illustration on cave walls.


In our modern time graffiti is everywhere. People from all age groups, races, and socio-economic background have been known to write something on a wall now and then.

Graffiti first became big in New York in late 60s and early 70s. It started as tagging or writing your name on a street sign using spray cans and markers. Then gangs used graffiti as a way to mark territory. The original "tag", a quickly scrawled name, were unattractive and crude. As writer began to evolve their styles and techniques into something calligraphic, using different typefaces and more colors, tags grew larger to "pieces" (masterpieces). Graffiti became a form of art to many.It inspired young artists to use their new art as a form of self-expression.

Graffiti moved from streets to subways, as pieces became more technically advanced it quickly became competitive. Graffiti artists competed for space and it eventually offended property owners. When the New York city declared a "war on graffiti," the entire situation gained international attention. The best of early writers have been idolized like outlaw rock stars, and their styles were spread across the world in newspapers, books, movies and internet. The misunderstanding that all graffiti represented gang activity, led to community pressure on polititions. But graffiti artists still strive to improve their art which is constantly changing.


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Terminology

tag - a stylized signature; the terms tagger and writer refer to a person who "tags"

piece (from "masterpiece") - a large image, often with 3-D effects, arrows giving flow and direction, many colours and colour-transitions and various other effects. A piece needs more time than a throw-up. If placed in a difficult location and well executed it will earn the writer more respect

throw-up - not a piece, but more of a large tag. It often has an outline (like black) and a fill-colour (like silver). Easy-to-paint bubble-shapes often form the letters

bombing (as in the phrases to bomb or to hit) has no connection with terrorism, but describes painting many surfaces. Throw-ups often serve for this, since they don't require much time to execute
crew or cru has become the standard collective noun for a group of writers or graffiti-artists, which can but are not limited to be part of gangs or can be associated with them for funding for materials, and sometimes protection from police and people who might not want graffiti on a certain wall while doing the piece. It is a common misconception that crews are gangs, since they are groups which break the law. However, crews can be founded in order to not be associated with gangs.

to slash somebody's tag (to put a line through, or tag over it) counts as a deep insult.

going over - (go over) if a writer goes over or tags upon another writer's piece, it is the same as declaring war against the opponent writer. Most writers respect others' work, and the basic rules for replacing other creations are in this order: tag - throwup - piece. If someone breaks this order, the person is considered being a toy or generally an annoyance.

toy - an inexperienced or unskilled writer. Graffiti pros use this as a derogatory term for new writers in the scene.

buffing - (to buff) to remove a graffiti-painting with chemicals and other instruments.




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References:
Lexicon. "Graffiti - History of graffiti". Spiritus-Temporis.com. 26 Feb. 2009
<http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/graffiti/history-of-graffiti.html>

Eric. "HISTORY OF GRAFFITI Pt 1".149st. 26 Feb. 2009
<http://www.daveyd.com/historyofgraf.html>

Image: Tag on a wall in Malmö, Sweden, by unknown graffiti artist
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tag_in_Malm%C3%B6.jpg>

"Relax if you can."

image by fedrus

Artists and designers can get inspirations from many things! – even cactus. The picture of the freakily green cactus-sofa above was used for an AXN-ad with the tagline "Relax if you can."
It was spotted on Designboom and has listed a whole range of cactus-inspired designs including furniture, apartment buildings, toys and toilet brushes.

"probably the most famous cactus is the saguaro, with its hard and solid spines
which grow from the stem. generally speaking, a cactus is a symbol of patience,
endurance, persistence and nostalgia. its cultural imaginary is portrayed in the
emphasis of the many design applications."


this armchair and ottoman are moulded in silicon gel in Xiang Yun
via


the twin sisters tineke and marieke willems, who form the dutch design studio tweelink,
have designed the bux chesterfield pouf for the new outdoor furniture company dutch summer.
the bux is an inimitable chesterfield pouf inspired by the box tree.
the top is made from skai leather and the bucket is made from plastic.


urban cactus is a housing project in the vuurplaat section of rotterdam
by UCX architects / ben huygen and jasper jaegers and done
for vestia rotterdam feijenoord/estrade projecten.

and a re-design of the 'merdolino' cactus toilet brush by unknown designer



tokidoki's wildly successful cactus friends line of vinyl figures

This is a clock.

Designer: Johan Bisse Mattsson

"If you live in the land of confusion, lemme confuse you more!
Designer Johan Bisse Mattsson is testing my limits as a writer and yours as a reader. Let’s see if you can comprehend this: A clock, where the Second’s Hand rotates from the tip of the Minute’s Hand. The Minute’s Hand rotates from the tip of the Hour’s Hand. Confused? I know I am…so give it up for Einstein here and head over to the Hand in Hand Clock webpage, where you can experience this mesmerizing design first hand.

Currently the Hand in Hand Clock is implemented as a software solution. Drag the hands to change the time and zoom in and out by using your scroll wheel."

- Article sourced from "Confuse Time, All The Time, Every Time", Posted by Radhika Seth, May.25.09 , Yanko Design.

This is such a clever and different way to design our ordinary everyday clocks. It changes the experience we read time by slightly adjusting mechanical features and functions of a clock. By not changing too much that it is still possible for anyone to read the time without any instructions given, instead of other clock or watch designs that introduces a whole different system of reading it, which is just not practicle. Also, I'd like to comment on how simple and easy it is to change the time with this clock, by simply dragging the clock's hands! No need to turn a wheel in the back of analog clock, or press on buttons number of times on digital clocks. This is a clock I'd like in my home!

http://www.handinhandclock.com/
Click check out how this clock works! & screen saver downloads are available.

Reading Assignment #3 Notes

Extracted notes from readings #3:

Know it all: Can wikipedia conquer expertise?
Stacy Schiff

-Wikipedia was launched in 2001. The number of visitors has been doubling every four months, and the site receives as many as fourteen thousand hits per second. Wikipedia functions as a fulter for vast amounts of information online. There are no physical limits on its size, Wikipedia can aspire to be all-inclusive.
- Anyone with Internet access can create a Wikipedia entry or edit one. The site has hundreds of thousands of contributors.

-The encyclopedic impulse first dated back in 220 A.D. by a Chinese emperor, for use by civil servants. The quest to catalogue all human knowledge accelerated in eighteenth century.

-Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, believes that the promise of the Internet is free knowledge for everyone.
As an undergraduate, he head read Friedrich Hayeck's 1945 free market manifesto, "The Use of Knowledge in Society," which argues that a person's knowledge is by definition partial, and that truth is established only when people pool their wisdom.

The articles must reflect a neutral point of view, and their content must be both verifiable and previously published.

What Wikipedia lacks: clarity and concision; the facts maybe sturdy, but the connective tissue is either anemic or absent; and citation is hit or miss.

Wikipedia is a combination of manifesto and reference work. Peer review, the mainstream media, and government agencies have landed us in a ditch. Not only are we impatient with the authorities but we are in a mood to talk back. Wikipedia offers endless opportunities for self-expression.

The New Yorker:
The News Business Out of Print
The Death and life of the American newspaper.
By Eric Alterman

Few believe that newspapers in their current printed form will survive. Newspaper companies are losing advertisers, readers, market value, and in some cases, their sense of mission at a pace that would have been barely imaginable just four years ago.

The rise of the internet, which has made the daily newspaper look slow and unresponsive.
-people no longer believed in the printed press.

No longer would people accept “a godlike figure from above” presenting the news as
“gospel.” Today’s consumers “want news on demand, continuously updated. They want a point of view about not just what
happened but why it happened. . . . And finally, they want to be able to use the information in a larger community—to talk
about, to debate, to question, and even to meet people who think about the world in similar or different ways.”



THE REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
(extracted from Judith Bell, Doing your Research Project: A guide for first-time researchers in
education, health and social science, 4th ed, Open University Press, London, 2005)

‘Theory’ has been explained as being ‘a set of interrelated abstract propositions about human
affairs and the social world that explain their regularities and relationships’ (Brewer 2000: 192), as
‘a proposition about the relationship between things’ (Denscombe 1998: 240) or ‘theory at the
lowest level can be an ad hoc classification system, consisting of categories which organise and
summarise empirical observations’ (Bowling 2002: 139).

The label is not important, but the process of establishing a map or framework of how the
research will be conducted and analysed is.

a theoretical framework is an explanatory device ‘which explains either graphically or in
narrative form, the main things to be studied – the key factors, constructs or variables – and the
presumed relationships among them. It is ‘an efficient
mechanism for drawing together and summarizing accumulated facts ... which makes the body of
accumulated knowledge more accessible and, thus, more useful both to practitioners who seek to
implement findings and to researchers who seek to extend the knowledge base.

The review of the literature checklist
1. Evidence of reading will always be required in any research. Though in a small study, it
may not be necessary to produce a full literature review.
2. Researchers collect many facts but then must select, organize and classify findings into a
coherent pattern. The aim is to produce a critical review, not a list of everything you have
read.
3. Your framework will not only provide a map of how the research will be conducted and
analysed but it will also give you ideas about a structure for your review. It will help you
to draw together and summarize facts and findings.
4. Literature reviews should be succinct and, as far as is possible in a small study, should
give a picture of the state of knowledge and of major questions in your topic area. If you
have been able to classify your reading into groups, categories or under headings, writing
your review will be relatively straightforward.
5. Ensure that all references are complete. Note the page numbers of any quotations and
paraphrases of good ideas. You cannot use them without acknowledging the source. If
you do, you may become involved in a plagiarism challenge. It should be possible for any
readers to locate your sources.
6. Watch your language. Perhaps inferences may be drawn, but ‘proof’ is hard to come by
when dealing with human beings. Make no claims which cannot be justified from the
Bell 8
evidence you have presented. Consider again the wording Richardson and Woodley use in
the extract from their article.
7. Examine your sources critically before you decide to use them. Any sign of bias,
inappropriate language, or false claims? Are you able to trust the authors’ judgements?
8. Remember that unless you are comparing like with like, you can make no claims for
comparability. Researchers often start their research from different bases and make use of
different methods of data collecting. You may still wish to use their findings, but be
careful about how you discuss them.
9. Do not be tempted to leave out any reports of research merely because they differ from
your own findings. It can be helpful to include differing results. Discuss whether they
undermine your own case – or not.
10. Start the first draft of your review early in your reading. Many more drafts will be
required before you have a coherent and ‘critical’ account but better to start small and
then build on your first attempt than to have to make sense of everything you have read
at one attempt. As you continue, entries will be deleted and others added, but you will
have made a start. Better to be faced with a badly-written, inadequate review than a blank
page.

Interview Questions with 2 local Graffiti artists

So for our group research project, we are focusing on Graffiti in Toronto and we have interviewed 2 logo artists. It was really inspiring to hear from them and just to learn more about the whole graffiti culture and politics behind the art.
Here are the interview notes:

1. What are your graffiti names?
- Tom: Life, KRY – take names that are given
- Toby: Morph, DSK – come up with different names on sketch books, often change names for style, also for when they get caught name needs to be changed
- Numbers originates from streets of New York, based on street numbers where the graffiti lives.
What others are there?

How do people pick them?
- take names that are given
- come up with different names on sketch books, often change names for style, also for when they get caught name needs to be changed

2. Why do you do graffiti? How did you start?
-Tom: Started young (12yrs old?) drawing on stop signs with markers, and doing more as he got older.
-kept going for recognition and fame, he was recognized in Edmonton everywhere.
-Al: getting motivations, to get his names out.

What do they see in it, what drives you?
- After fame, it was more about art

3. What locations are desired and why?
- Tom: On streets, people are passing by all the time. But for places like in Yards, can be able to stay for long time (about 8hrs)
- Trains, traveling can carry his graffiti to everywhere. Graffiti on trains last.
- Al: graffiti artists would wait for trains to come out in the morning.
- chose places where lasts long, such as alley ways, trains,
- Even on grounds

Can you show us some of your work?
- Usually no photos was taken from the artists, they enjoyed the process of graffiti more than collecting images of their own. It was about doing it for others to see.

4. What is the writers’ relationship with police?
- over 18 and get 3 times strike will go to jail.
- “Bad” relationship with the police
- Tom: First time got caught was under 18 from police got a warning, paints taken away (Edmonton)
- 2nd time, at a wall in Vancouver, chased by bike police and tackled by police officers.
- Police’s got photos of their tags & files for records.
- Al: After 3 times strike, police can restrict them in terms of mobility and traveling.
- Tagging police cars

How much appeal of graffiti is form the fact it is illegal?
- Huge appeal and controversy for artists to do things breaking the rules/law.
- It is the Cool factor for some others.
- Often messages are carried in the graffiti.
- 3 types of graffiti: tag, throw (bubbly letters), a piece (multicolor multi-layered graffiti)

5. What are the important aspects of graffiti culture? (the adrenaline of knowing you are breaking the rules)

What are the politics behind the culture?
- Ed from New York banned graffitis since 1982, before that graffiti was seen everywhere like trains.
- Here in North America, it traced back from New York, based on names here. Depends on where you are in the world, it could be based on politics or name. For Tom it is a bit of both.
- many artists stop doing graffiti as they get older because legal issues are effecting their personal life. (some needed to wear masks in order to keep doing graffiti)

6. What is your relationship with other graffiti artists? Conflicts?
- Everyone develops their own style, originally from seeing other’s works, to eventually develop their own unique style.
- Beef – graffiti artist crossing other artist’s name out. Very much like b-boys, and free-style rap artists, graffiti war is very much the same.
- Conflicts can get as bad, and violence could be involved.
- Graffiti develop from hip-hop culture. Without graffiti, there is no hip-pop culture and is one of the sub-cultures(4 sub cultures: graffiti, rap, rave dance, MC)
- Movie: Warriors – Gang tags to claim territories.; Style Wars (HMV); Wild Styles
- Tom and Troy’s style is not hip-hop however.

7. What makes Toronto graffiti unique?
- Keel station- subject of wild animals which is unique to Canada
- Internet influences the local cultures of graffiti, and it is becoming a global style.
- Style is different from city to city, Toronto and Vancouver is different as well.
- New York (silver linings and bold style), Brazil (verticle) , and Taiwan (Chinese characters) all have their distinctive style.
- Futura from the 80’s

8. Are there any misconceptions or myths you think the public doesn’t understand and you want to share?
- Al: Graffiti is art regardless of other’s opinion
- Tom: People often get misconceptions artists only do one specific type of graffiti, artists does all 3 types of graffiti. Not all graffiti artist are violent.
- Cops likes to push that graffiti are gang markings, but really it is not.
- Graffiti culture is a youth culture (in age range of 12-20).

Another kinetic type... with Blink 182!

These so called kinetic typography is really inspiring me to learn After Effects and just do one myself!
This video is done by a undergrad studying photovoltaic engineering at UNSW. He managed to work on it through exams at uni and other school work. Applause!

Paper Art Designs by Yulia Brodskaya

Believe it or not, these 3D wall decors rich in colors and patterns are all handmade from paper by an ingenious graphic designer Yulia Brodskaya. She perfectly combines typography, paper and dedicate hand-made craft objects all together, endowing these advertising posters with a distinctive beauty. Using the unique technique, Yulia Brodskaya has made advertising posters for Orange, Nokia and other companies.

Investigating Design: A Review of Forty Years of Design Research

by Nigan Bayazit

The following are extracted from the article:

What is Design Research?

Design research definition by L. Bruce Archer:
“Design research is systematic inquiry whose goal
is knowledge of, or in, the embodiment of configuration, composition,
structure, purpose, value, and meaning in man-made things
and systems.”

What is Design Research??
A. Design research is concerned with the physical embodiment of man-made things, how these things perform their jobs.
B Design research is concerned with construction as human activity, how designers work, how they think, and how they carry out design activity.
C Design research is concerned with what is achieved at the end of a purposeful design activity, how an artificial thing appears, and what it means.
D Design research is concerned with the embodiment of configurations.
E Design research is a systematic search and acquisition of knowledge related to design and design activity

-Overall activities of design research = "science of artificial"
- Christopher Frayling states "Research through are art and design is less straight forward, but still identifiable and visible," consisting of material research, developmental work, and action research.

- De stijl: attempt and desire to "scientize" design in the 20s
- Bauhaus - methodological foundation for design education
-Gropius envisioned a desire to produce works of art and design based on objectivity and rationality.
- "Dymaxion" or "4D" - a "design science" that would obtain maximum human advantage from a minimum use of energy and materials.

Role of Design Methods in Design Research
- History of design methods and research began with applying large-scale NASA and military technical problems to civilian and other design areas in the 50s and 60s.
-After WWII, new inventions intrigued many designers to become interested in the methods and techniques.
- technological developments and mass production caused design interests to shift from hardware and form to consideration of human needs.

First generation Design Methodology had turned into a sort of academic subculture.

Second-Generation Design Methods
"What is design research that it is different from other forms of research?"
- Research in Europe concentrated on housing design and performance. After WWII. Prefabricated buildings were in need in Europe.
-Prefabricated building design, and research on the coordinated building elements and the building layout optimization were well-accepted research subjects in the universities as well as in the research centers.
-applying scientific methods to design problems in new housing construction.
- various environmental characteristics of housing were applied and encouraged.
"The first evidence of change originates from the period of the 2nd world war, and from the reconstruction and construction period.
-new and demanding needs in a highly developed industry.
- 70s labeled as the prime time for the initial development of design science.